I AGREE with the comments of Tory MP David Davis about restoring the death penalty - it's just a pity no one else has had the guts to stand up and say it.

Since its abolition 40 years ago there are more murders than ever. I do not believe life imprisonment, even when it means life, is an appropriate punishment for certain types of murder.

Premeditated crimes - those without any element of provocation or those perpetrated upon the most vulnerable in our society such as children and the elderly - strike me as being appropriate, in principle, for punishment by death.

How can those who oppose capital punishment reconcile their consciences with the collapse of public morale in the face of rising extreme violence, and the consequences this could have for a country forced to live under the twin clouds of fear and systematic injustice?

Colin Henson,

Moorcroft Road,

Woodthorpe, York.

Updated: 11:01 Wednesday, November 19, 2003